


Five Times Neymar Knew He Was In Love

by SoGayItHurts



Series: Ends With A Kiss | Neymes [3]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: AND NEY IS SOOOO IN LOVE, Also I actually love Vermaelen so sorry, Boy is this fluffy, Crismes, Crismes jelousy I guess, Especially 1 and 4, Fluff, Fluffy Boys, JAMES IS SO SOFT, M/M, Marcelo and Dani are actually the best, Secret Relationship, football boyfriends, he's my princess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15353298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoGayItHurts/pseuds/SoGayItHurts
Summary: He accepted it a long time ago, but it still dawns him, every now and again, at random moments, that he loved James. He had fallen so deeply in love and there was nothing he could do about it, except let himself realise it over and over.-----------------------------------Fluffy secret boyfriends, also they come out at the end, a bit, I guess, I mean people find out about them so...fluffy not-so-secret boyfriends. Oh god this is so soft.





	Five Times Neymar Knew He Was In Love

The first time Neymar realised that he was actually completely in love, was when he was lying awake at 5 in the morning, face to face with James.

James' arms were gently wrapped around Ney's waist and they lay close together in the king sized bed. James was still asleep, he had practice at 7am and Neymar knew that if he moved even a tiny bit to get out of bed, his boyfriend would wake up and be tired during training.

So he just lay there. And admired James' sleepy face, trying to fall asleep once again.

When that was impossible, he counted James' freckles. He found himself doing this a lot even in the middle of conversations, he'd just stop mid-sentence and start counting James' freckles.  
  
He was almost at 150, when there was a flutter of James' eyelids and his pretty eyes opened.  
  
"Well, hello there," James yawned as he spoke, his voice deep and tired.  
"Go back to sleep, babes," Neymar gave him a soft smile and then shut James' eyelids with his fingers.  
  
"Well, you've woken me up now, with your staring,"  
"How did I wake you up with my staring when you eyes were closed, James?" Neymar laughed.  
  
"Fair enough, but how about you go to sleep then?"  
"I don't have practice in two hours,"  
  
James yawned again and then pushed himself closer to Neymar, so that their noses were touching and their legs were intertwined.  
  
"Well then, neither do I," James giggled, getting even more comfortable in the bed.  
  
"James David Rodríguez Rubio, if you don't go to practice, Benitez will murder you, and I do not want you to die,"  
  
"Oh come on, I haven't missed a single day of training all season, I think ONE day off would be ok," James complained, still yawning and drifting off every couple of minutes.  
  
"You missed last week because you wanted to go shopping, and you missed two days ago because you were cold and thought you were sick, and literally yesterday, you didn't go because you wanted to sleep,"  
  
James smirked, and then reluctantly sighed. He moved his hand from on top of Neymar's waist and began playing with the younger boy's hair, twirling it in his fingers, until he eventually fell back asleep.  
  
And Neymar smiled to himself at how innocent and soft his boyfriend was, and he lay awake, just counting the freckles on his cheeks. And it was calm, soothing and silent, except the soft snores of James.  
  
It was rare they even got to stay together for longer than two days, you know, with them being on two completely opposite teams and living in completely different areas of Spain.  
  
And nobody else even knew they were together, it was a miracle they had kept it private for so long, but somehow, they had. But it didn't feel right, to be so close and so happy when they were alone, and then pretending they didn't know each other in public. 

Sometimes, he just wanted to tell everyone, sometimes he wanted to grab hold of James and take him outside and announce to the world that he was Neymar's, and only Neymar's.  
  
Because as he lay there, counting freckles and listening to the pattern of James' breathing, Neymar knew this was where he was happiest. It was where he felt most at home, it was where he felt like he belonged. Right beside James, who still had a finger tangled in the younger boy's hair, and slowly drifting off to sleep. 

And even though it wasn't that significant, it was just a normal time, nothing completely out of order, that was when it hit Neymar.  
  
That's when he realised that he wanted to keep the Colombian boy in his arms forever and keep him safe until there was nothing more he could do. 

As James slept soundly, peacefully and quietly, Neymar finally came to the conclusion that he knew the deal. He knew what was happening. He knew what he felt.  
  
It may have not been that amazing of a moment, but it was the first time Neymar knew that he was in love with James.

——————————— 

The second time he realised he was in love with James was when he wasn't around him. When he had to go back to Barcelona and pretend that he never knew him.  
  
They were training at Camp Nou, if it could even be labelled as training, and he missed him. It wasn't something special, he always missed him, but sometimes it hit him harder than other times. He was halfway through a debate with Rafinha about ketchup and he almost slipped the fact that he knew James out, accidentally.  
  
"I swear to god, if anybody puts their ketchup all over the food, then they're insane,"  
"I am not insane!" Neymar laughed, whacking Rafinha with his beanie.  
  
"Name ONE person beside you that eats like that, or should I say, like a maniac,"  
"James does it sometimes, when he's too tired to do it YOUR way, and he doesn't seem bothered at ALL, so hah!" Neymar nudged Rafinha, as if he had just won a battle, but his friend just looked confused.  
  
"Who the fuck is James?" 

"Did I say that? I meant to say...uh, I meant to say, Jamón, my friend from Santos,"  
  
Rafinha shrugged his shoulders, taking what he said to be true and then he threw him on the floor, tackling him in an unnecessary rugby throw.  
  
"RAFI! WHY?"  
"You're lying, Jamón isn't a real person, you just can't think of anyone who puts ketchup on their food like you do,"  
  
"JAMÓN IS REAL!"  
"OH REALLY, NEY?"  
  
The boys toppled over each other until their coach told them to stop and get on with their training.  
  
Two or three hours passed and the boys went back into the locker rooms.  
  
Neymar opened his phone to have received a message from none other than James.  
  
_J: You wanna come to mine after your practice? Cause I miss you, it's been two weeks and I want to see you x_  
  
He smiled at his phone and then quickly texted back.

_N: Sure babes, just finished training, I'll be there in an hour x_  
  
"Ooh, Ney's talking to someone special," Luis teased as Neymar smiled at his phone.  
  
He immediately turned the screen off, put his phone away and then laughed along, as the boys joked about his 'lover'.  
  
"Oh, shut up, you know I'd tell you guys right away," Neymar defended himself, even though it clearly wasn't true.  
  
His phone started ringing in his pocket, and out of fear that it may be James, he walked closer towards the exit.  
  
"Well, uh, I'm gonna just uh answer this call,"  
"Why don't you just answer it in here?" Luis asked.  
  
"Because there's music blaring out of Dani's stereo," Neymar made up the excuse.

All the men looked at Dani, who turned down his music, and they all looked back at Neymar. He edged closer to the door.  
  
"It's private, ok?" He simply muttered before exiting the room.  
  
Closing the door behind him, he answered the phone to a sleepy-sounding James.  
  
"Ney, I'm bored,"  
"Is that why you called me?"  
"Yeah, because I want to see you and I'm bored,"  
  
"Well, I'm in a public setting, so I'll call you back when I'm in the car, but I have to go now,"  
  
"Who's around you? Just tell them my name's Angelina or something,"  
"I'm still getting changed, babes, they might recognise your voice, I gotta go,"  
  
"Alright then, I love you,"  
"Love you too, babes," He ended the call and silently moved back into the changing room.  
  
They must have not heard him enter because they continued to speak about him.  
  
"Do you reckon he's dating someone he shouldn't be dating?" Ivan questioned.  
"Like a sister of ours?" Sergi added.  
  
"Yeah, or a female fan, maybe it's just a relationship he doesn't want to go public," Leo stated.  
  
"Still, I feel like he could at least tell us SOMETHING, even if it's just where she comes from or something," Luis sounded slightly upset. 

Neymar coughed and the boys scattered to get changed and pretend nothing happened. He smiled once, pretending he had no idea what they were saying and then got changed.  
  
It turned out he had somehow brought James' jumper to change into instead of his own, and was left to put on a jumper almost twice him size but smelt extremely nice and reminded him of James.

"Are you sure that's your jumper, Ney?" Dani grinned as his fellow Brazilian turned around with a blue sweater that fell to his knees. "Yeah," Neymar smiled.  
  
One by one, everybody left the changing room, and after saying his fair wells, Neymar entered his car and immediately looked for James' contact number.

"Took you long enough to get changed," James complained, though in good spirit.

"Well I'm sorry you blew my cover," Neymar replied, earning a gasp from James.  
  
"Did they hear us? Did they find out?"  
"Don't worry, James, they think I'm dating one of their sisters,"

"Should have known that everyone else on earth thinks you're attracted to women,"  
"I am still partially attracted to women, I mean, bisexual, if that's what you mean," 

"No, you don't like women, or men. You only like James, James and only James, you have one option of attraction and it is James,"  
  
Neymar smiled to himself. He knew it was true, he couldn't even imagine being attracted to anybody else.  
  
"I miss you," He stated,  
"I miss you too, when are you going to get here?"  
"In about twenty minutes,"  
  
The subject changed to James telling him a long winded story about something he and his teammate Marcelo did in their training practice. And Neymar happily listened, even though James got extremely excited and overly happy to the extent where he hardly spoke properly, he listened. And he liked to listen.  
  
He liked to listen to his boyfriend's voice as he told him about his day, he liked wearing his extremely large jumper, and enjoying the sweet, memorable smell he missed, he liked missing James _on his way to see James._  
  
He missed James frightfully much every time they were away, but the feeling of going to see him never got old. He always felt like a kid being told that they were going to the fun fair for the first time, and no matter how long they were away from each other for, everything led back to James.  
  
And so he listened and he laughed and he enjoyed the sound of James' voice. And he loved it. And in the warmth of his car, in the warmth of James' sweater, with the warmth of James' voice, Neymar once again felt internally and externally happy.  
  
And it struck him once again that he most certainly was in love with James.  
  
————————————————  
  
The third time he realised he loved James was when was waiting for him to come out of a match against Granada, alongside Dani (who he had by then told).  
  
It took a while but eventually Neymar had explained the situation to Dani, and James had also told only Marcelo, and they were the only people who knew.  
  
And now both Neymar and Dani waited in his car for a certain brown haired Madridster. Neymar was lucky he was in the same area, seeing as they had just played a match against Atletico Madrid, and waited for James to come out from the locker room, in his car.  
  
_N: I'm waiting outside, around the corner, if you wanna come with me to mine, but I'm with Dani._  
  
He texted, waiting for a reply , as many of the other players flooded out. Within seconds, James replied.  
  
_J: Sorry, Ney, wish I could but we're going out to celebrate, you can come if you want, but you have to pretend Dani dragged you along._  
  
"What did he say?" A curious Dani asked from the front seat.  
"He says they're going out, but we can come too,"  
"Are you sure about that?"  
  
"Yeah, just pretend you made me come so you could see Marcelo or something,"  
  
Dani shrugged. "I'm down, I mean, you haven't been smashed in so long, dude, you need this,"  
"Oh shut up!" Neymar smiled.  
  
"I'm just guessing, but from what I can tell, you're a bottom,"  
"Dani, shut UP!"  
"But James is so innocent, maybe you're a top,"  
"Dani, please!"  
"Maybe you're a verse, maybe you're both verses,"  
"DANI!"  
  
"I bet you fuck him better than he fucks you,"  
"Oh my god, please,"  
"But I'm only saying that as your best friend, he has quite strong hands,"  
"DANI!" Neymar laughed and covered Dani's mouth with his hand.  
  
Dani continued to speak, even though his words were muffled by Neymar's hand.  
  
"Not in my holy car, Dani," Neymar chuckled as he said it. And they continued to drive in the same direction as the Real Madrid cars.  
  
When they arrived at the party, Dani and Neymar tried discreetly to enter without being noticed. After managing to convince a security guard to let them right through, they moved towards the back.  
  
Upon arriving, they had to keep their distance from the Madrid boys, but Neymar couldn't help but look for James, who was talking to Cristiano. From afar, he just waited for their conversation to end, although it didn't seem like it ever would. And they moved closer and closer, too close for Neymar's liking.  
  
Slightly on the inside his blood was starting to boil. He wasn't used to seeing James with other people around, but now that he had, he didn't like it. He didn't like seeing his boyfriend giggling and touching another person.  
  
"Don't stare at him like that, it doesn't even look like you're dating him, it looks like you want to kill him," Dani said from behind him.  
  
"Are him and Ronaldo close do you reckon?" Neymar asked, but Dani laughed.  
"You really think that he would cheat on you with RONALDO?"  
  
Neymar shrugged and tried to understand Dani's point. Cristiano was like James' idol, like Leo was his. It was nothing more. But the two were extremely close and Neymar was extremely uncomfortable.  
  
And there was whispering and more giggling and he wanted it to stop.

  
"Dani, go and do something,"  
"What do you want me to do?"  
"I don't know, anything, stop them,"  
"I can't just walk over there, or they'll know I'm here,"  
"Well, my eyes hurt,"

"Then stop looking," Dani nudged him.  
  
But Neymar didn't, his eyes stayed darted on the two, who were still laughing and beaming and making Neymar want to puke. Dani looked at Neymar's face and when he realised that he was actually worried, he signalled to Marcelo on the other side of the room.  
  
Being the good friend he is, Marcelo immediately went over to his two Brazilian companions and asked what was up. Dani told him and without a second of thought, Marcelo was off to see his Real Madrid buddies.

"Hey Cris, I'm digging the new hair," Marcelo intersected the two, standing right on the middle of them.  
  
"Uh...thanks, I used the new gel Iker got, it's actually really nice," Cris replied, slightly confused about why Marcelo had butted in in such a way. Marcelo smiled once more, before turning to James and signalling to him where Neymar was, making sure that Cris couldn't hear, and leaving.  
  
When he found his boyfriend, James wrapped both arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, whispering "I missed you" into his ear.  
  
"Thank god you're here, Ney was about to shoot me out of anger," Dani greeted James.

"Why were you angry?" James asked, still keeping his voice low so nobody could notice them.  
"Nothing, babes, I'm good now," Neymar smiled at James, even though the thought still lingered in his mind.

"He was gonna murder me because he thought you and Cris had a thing going on," Dani teased, even though Neymar told him to shut up.  
  
"Did you really?" James tried to not smile, but he eventually did.  
  
"No, of course not, I completely understand that you can be friends with other people," Neymar almost lied.

"He told me his eyes were hurting when Cris made you giggle," Dani explained and Neymar pushed him playfully.  
  
"You did, didn't you?" James let out a soft laugh and clung on to Neymar's body.  
"Well, you're really pretty, so I just assume that people like you more than they should," Neymar explained.  
  
"Obviously, because I'm _irresistible_ ," James joked, earning a chuckle from Neymar.  
  
"Well you can't like them, you can only love Neymar and only Neymar," He smiled, still wrapped in James' arms.  
  
"Of course I don't like Cris, I've got you, right?"  
"You got me,"  
  
"Oh, please stop," Dani moaned as the two stood in a warm embrace that didn't seem to end.  
  
"Just because you said that..." Neymar smirked at Dani before making eye contact with James and leaning in to kiss him. Their lips moved together softly, and for minutes, they did not let go.  
  
The entire evening was filled with secret kisses and "I love you"'s, every opportunity where nobody was around them, the two boys filled with constant affection.  
  
Dani reckoned he'd seen enough after a bit, and decided he'd rather take a taxi than watch these boys snog in the back of the car.  
  
Still keeping their distance from everyone else, James and Neymar stayed close and talked, whilst also watching what everyone else was doing.  
  
"But if we WERE Disney characters I'm pretty sure I'd be Flynn from Rapunzel, 'cause I'm cool," James argued his point.  
"No, I'm thinking you'd be like Rapunzel, because you're always confused and you find everything fascinating,"  
  
"Well, I think you'd be Gaston, 'cause you look in the mirror more than you look at me,"  
"That's a lie!"  
"Oh, great now you're Pinocchio as well," James laughed.

"Ok then, I think I'd be the princess and you'd be the frog from 'Princess and the frog', Neymar said.  
"Why, because I'm slimy and probably evil?"  
  
"No, because even though it's really stupid, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you,"  
  
Neymar didn't even mean to say it, but when he looked at James' face, he was glad he had.  
  
There was a shine in his eyes, and a warm, single chuckle left his mouth. And then a smile appeared, a perfect smile. There was something about the way he smiled; the way butterflies seems to escape from the pit of his stomach, and the way the sun had practically been placed on earth and wrapped in James' heart, there was something about it that made Neymar realise.  
  
It made Neymar realise that James never smiled like this for other people, as far as he was concerned, this smile was rare. And maybe, Neymar thought, James really did love him as much as he loved James.  
  
Because the glint of joy in his eyes after he said that and the smile that devoured his face lead him to believe that maybe, he wasn't the only one falling in love.  
  
And the night went on, and Neymar knew that someone as pure and perfect as James would never think to do anything that would hurt him, not that he ever thought he would.  
  
He wanted to keep James, away from reality and the truth and the horrid evil of earth.  
  
He wanted to keep _James._

And it was the third time he realised he was in love with James.  
  
——————————————  
  
The fourth time Neymar realised he was I love with James was at 1 in the morning, when the two had gone out to a calm and private star gazing site. 

They had to check it was empty first, looking around every single speck of Land until they were certain nobody was nearby.

"Why are we here, James?" Neymar asked, sitting down beside the older boy, who lay on the floor.  
  
"Because after today, I don't see you until El Clasico in a month," James replied.  
  
"So we went _star gazing_?"  
"Well...Yeah,"  
  
There was silence as the two just watched the stars, but it was a comfortable silence, one were they just admired the stars and each others' presence.  
  
"Why do we do this?" James suddenly asked, still facing the sky.  
  
"Why do we do what?"  
"Why do we keep it a secret, why do we keep US a secret?"  
  
Neymar sighed, sometimes he asked himself that, too. But he knew the answer. 

"Because nobody wants us to be what we are, that's why,"  
"Nobody wants us to be happy?"  
  
"Maybe so, but I read somewhere that 1 in 8 football fans would stop watching football if one of the players wasn't heterosexual," Neymar answered, and it was factually correct.  
  
James frowned, puppy eyes glistening under the moonlight.  
  
"Still, that would just be 1 in 8 football fans who would be missing out," James replied, reaching for his boyfriend's hand and drawing circles in Neymar's palm with his thumb.  
  
"How do you reckon your team mates would react?" Neymar asked.  
"Well, Marcelo wasn't that shocked, but I'm not sure about every one else, they make pretty mean gay jokes in the locker room sometimes,"  
  
"Oh well, more James for me, then," Neymar smiled, looking down at his boyfriend.  
  
"We have to play AGAINST each other in a month, Ney,"  
"I know,"  
"We have to pretend to be ENEMIES,"  
"I know,"  
"I don't even think I could do that, I can't even play against you,"  
  
"Well, we're going to have to, even if it means I kiss you until your lips are sore after it's done," 

" _And_ before,"  
"Alright then, and before,"  
" _And_ now,"  
"Not now, James, we're star gazing,"  
  
And their eyes retraced to the stars in the sky.

"They're so pretty,"  
"You're so pretty,"  
"Oh, shut up, Ney," James giggled and playfully shoved the younger lad.  
  
After a few minutes of pointing out different stars, Neymar turned back to James, and lay down beside him.  
  
"I wish people understood us," He stated.  
"In what sense?"

"I wish people understood how hard it is to play against someone you love more than anything else, and having to chose between everything else and them,"  
  
"Not _everything_ else," James replied, hiding the fact he was blushing about Neymar's words.  
  
"If I lose for you, my fans will be disappointed, my team, my family, my friends, but if I do play against you and hurt you in any way..."  
  
"Relax, Ney, I'm not going to hate you because you won against me in ONE match," James assured.

"Alright then, let's make the promise now, no matter who wins, nothing will change ,ok?"  
  
"Definitely," James nodded, kissing Neymar's cheek, and then moving in closer.  
  
It was cold, and the only warmth they had was each other, so as wind breezed passed, they held each other softly and stopped any freezing feeling from entering their bodies.  
  
"The stars look like they make little shapes," James got slightly too excited about it, and listed out different animals and objects he could see.  
  
"They even make words!" James continued, spelling out basic words like 'cat' and 'mum'  
"Look there's a sentence," Neymar said, and James waited intently for Neymar to point it out.  
  
"Ney loves James," Neymar simply smiled.  
  
"Oh shut up," James giggled, but nonetheless placed a soft kiss on Neymar's forehead.  
  
"My grandma used to say that when you die, you'd become a star and shine over your loved ones," Neymar stated.  
"Well then, my granddad is the brightest star in the sky," James searched for the star the shined the most, before pointing to it and smiling.  
  
"Then, when I die, I'll shine alongside your grandad,"  
"Let's not talk about when you're dead,"  
"Why shouldn't we? I'm going to die eventually,"  
  
  
"Well, I'll protect you until I myself die," James replied.  
  
Neymar laughed. James couldn't hurt a fly and he knew it, the best protecting he could do was keeping Neymar happy, which he seemed to do best.  
  
They were cuddling on the ground, staring up at the beautiful star, and everything in the world was good. Everything was fine, and every problem they had faced to get here, was worth it.  
  
Every obstacle they had to go through was worth being here, and being genuinely happy with someone they genuinely love.

  
"Infact, I'll die before you so I can watch you from the night sky and know that you're safe," James said, yawning while he said it.  
  
"Well-" Neymar started, but when he looking at his boyfriend, he realised that the boy was already asleep, the wind blowing gently at the tips of his hair, as he tucked his head into Neymar's chest and dozed off. Neymar smiled, grabbing hold of James' hand and intertwining their fingers.  
  
"I love you so much, I hope you know that," He said to James, although he knew that James could hardly hear him.

And it was the truth.  
  
It was hard at times, to be helplessly in love with someone who you were meant to hate, and the fact that they were both males also didn't help. But he couldn't think of himself in any place where he would be happier than he would be with James.  
  
Nothing made him happier than being with James. Nobody made him feel as carefree and calm as James did. Not one thing could compare to the extensive love for James that he owned.  
  
Because being completely honest, he may have been willing to drop all he had ever known for James. And he looked up at the star James had assigned to his grandfather, which glistened at him. He loved James and there was nobody that could do anything to stop him.  
  
It was the fourth time he realised he was in love with James.  
  
———————————————  
  
The fifth time Neymar realised he was in love with James was at El Clasico.  
  
El Clasico was always a big deal, those who won could go on with their lives as champions and those who failed to succeed would have to live in disappointment. And it was hard.  
  
It was hard for Neymar, it was hard for him to pretend he had absolutely no interest in James, or that he had never really been close with him. When he was.  
  
"Ney, come on," Leo called as Neymar put his shoes on, still contemplating the thought of a sad James.  
  
There was nothing on earth worse than a sad James, it was rare, but a sad James could not be beaten. Sad James was painful to look at, painful to think about, painful in every sense.  
  
He nodded at his close friend and the two ran out to the field, holding hands with their assigned children.  
  
The line of players stretched out, and opposite them, were the men in white. Opposite them were their rivals. Opposite them was the wall between a successful life or an endless pit of misery.  
  
One by one, the boys went along the line, shaking hands with every player.  
  
When Neymar got to James he couldn't even look him in the eye, just in case anybody saw how his eyes melted in the Columbian's. He simply shook his hand and moved on. He did the same with everyone else, although he gave Marcelo and quick hug and smiled at Bale, who stood at the end.  
  
And the match began. It was a rather eventful match, not anything you wouldn't expect, but it wasn't exactly boring.

Ramos got a red card within minutes, Suarez scored two goals and Ter Stegen made four excelled saves, but accidentally let in a goal. By half time, the score was 2-1 to Barça.  
  
Neymar was calm. James didn't seem disheartened at all by the score and they had texted through the entire half time break. In the second half, however, something happened.  
  
James was dribbling the ball, around the centre of the field, when Vermaelen, a defender from Barcelona, tackled him to the ground, causing James to go flying off his feet and land, arm first on the ground.  
  
The referee called a foul and the game was paused.  
  
Neymar watched from afar, but his blood was slowly boiling and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. He walked over to the group surrounding a pained James.  
  
"Do something, for God's sake, he's in pain," Neymar whispered to the referee who called for medical assistance.  
  
And, reluctantly, Neymar watched, as a James held his arm in pain. The medics, however, said he would be okay for the rest of the match, helped him to stand up and then scurried off back into the tunnel.  
  
"Are they actually insane?" Neymar muttered under his breath, running after James, who moved slowly along the side of the pitch.

  
"James, show me your arm," He called, earning a shocked look from James.  
  
"I thought we said we weren't going to talk on the pitch,"  
"Well you're hurt, I just want to see your arm, and we're hidden, down the side of the pitch anyway,"  
"I'm okay, Ney, don't worry about it,"  
  
"But what if you're not?" Neymar asked, gently turning James around and beginning to check his hand. The people around them didn't seem to notice, the match was still being paused, as Vermaelen hassled the referee about his red card.  
  
James jogged along, after smiling once at Neymar and whispering a 'see you in a bit'.  
  
The younger boy, however, was still slightly worried. James' arm was hurt, he could see it. Eventually, Vermaelen accepted the fact that he had a red card and aggressively ran after James, looking as if he were about to hit him.

"Leave him alone!" Neymar called, genuinely angry with his teammate.  
"Ney, please," James whispered.  
  
"For fuck's sake, get off the field, you have a fucking red card, deal with it and leave," Neymar spat at the Barcelona player.  
  
"Ney," James' voice was soft, and it calmed him down. He turned around to face him, and boy, was that a mistake.  
  
Because he knew that as soon as their eyes met, he couldn't do it. He couldn't stand there and pretend that he did not genuinely and most certainly love this man, he couldn't hide it because of horrid fans who wouldn't accept him for who he was.  
  
He couldn't stand there in front of the light of his life and pretend they were simply another small ray. He couldn't stand there and look at James' face, warm, comforting, carefree.  
  
He couldn't do it. And for a second, the four hundred million people watching disappeared, the people on the pitch disappeared, the referee, commentators, everyone, just disappeared. And it was just him and James.  
  
And the perfect colour in James' eyes led Neymar to do what he wanted to do. What he always wanted to do.  
  
He looked at James' freckled face, and pulled him closer, kissing him, passionately. James hardly felt tense, as he gently kissed him back, wrapping both arms around Neymar's smaller body.  
  
As more attention drew to them, the boys themselves hardly noticed, little gasps filled the arena and there were whispers left, right and centre. Dani nearly punched himself in the face as the two did not stop.  
  
In fact, it was as if they were in the safety of James' hotel room, or they were alone and happy. Because they were happy, happier together. And it was frightfully brave.  
  
Frightfully brave to stand, wearing a Barça and Real shirt and be happy together.

  
It was the fifth time _Neymar_ realised he loved James, but it was the rest of the world's first time knowing that he really did.  
  
It didn't seem like they were going to stop any time soon, Neymar only paused to gasp for breath every few minutes, but aside from it, they didn't stop.

  
And the crowd fell to silence.


End file.
